


I’ll Take Your Confession Now

by Bonymaloney



Series: Fighting It At Every Turn [11]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: An eventual possible declaration of love, Anal Fingering, Consensual Violence, Cowgirl Position, F/M, Face-Sitting, Feels, Fighting As Foreplay, Fighting Kink, Light Masochism, Mild Blood, Minor Injuries, Misuse of tactical time dilation, Non-canon tattoos, Oral Sex, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Post-Coital Cuddling, Sparring, now illustrated!, possible eventual declarations of love, pre-final mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:08:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22868401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonymaloney/pseuds/Bonymaloney
Summary: Max removed his shirt, folding it carefully before draping it across the rungs of the rear ladder. Clad only in his slacks, he padded towards her across the floor of the hold. Poised and ready for violence with a smile on his face. He spread his arms wide; an invitation, a blessing and a challenge.“As always, I am at your disposal.”
Relationships: The Captain/Maximillian DeSoto
Series: Fighting It At Every Turn [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629799
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

Pearl was alone on the Unreliable. She wanted to be alone; wanted a few hours with her ship, to appreciate one final time the joy and sorrow she had brought her. When they finished the resupply, the ship was bound for Tartarus. She didn’t know if Phineas was as capable of solving the Halcyon crisis as he claimed; although she did think he stood a better chance of it than the Board. But he’d given her her freedom; and she owed him for that. 

The crew had gone to prop up the bar at the Lost Hope. Nyoka because it was her coping mechanism; Ellie because she thought that it would be a cool coping mechanism to have. Max was hopefully drinking with them, rather than unleashing his own coping mechanism on some poor unsuspecting bar fighter. Felix would be visiting old haunts, old flames maybe, and Parvati seeking comfort with her new one. 

The hangar was empty, but she could still smell salt and gun grease and woolycow. Her footsteps echoed strangely in the warm air. She spent a little time at the workbench, but she knew she was just making time. Her sword was gleaming, the blade as sharp as it was ever going to be. 

Here was the place where Max had dropped that bottle of whiskey on the stairs and lost his shit about it, there was the spot Ellie and Felix liked to smoke. No butts; SAM had obviously been through before powering down to charge its weapons to full capacity. The stairs felt comfortingly familiar under her feet, and she ran her fingers along the smooth rail, the rougher patches where the paint had chipped to reveal the bare metal underneath. 

The crew quarters were empty, so she went to the kitchen and stood for a while. The table was strewn with the cards and counters for a colonial game she’d never quite taken to. The others would drop it and start it up again as the fancy took them, and it wasn’t unusual to see it left out like this, but for some reason it felt different. It felt abandoned. There wasn’t much that Pearl missed about Earth any more, but she was longing for a real cup of coffee. She settled for mock-apple tea. 

She didn’t notice the sound of running water until it stopped. A minute or so later, Max stepped from the bathroom, his face flushed pink. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of simple dark slacks. He seemed relaxed, but when Pearl looked at him closely his pupils were their usual size. The corner of his mouth lifted - he knew what she’d been looking for. He pulled up a chair and sat beside her. 

“Pearl. I do apologise for delaying your ablutions,” he said, in a tone of voice that suggested he was being polite rather than that he was truly sorry. “I rather lost track of time.”

“It’s no problem, I wasn’t waiting. I’m just… I didn’t expect you.” She could see he was clean shaven, and he’d also buzzed back the sides of his hair. The longer part on top was combed away from his forehead and still a little damp. He smelled of toothpaste and cold cream. “Is there any water left? On the entire station?”

“By the time I left Tartarus,” he said, “I didn’t look much like myself.” He checked his (flawlessly clean) fingernails, until he noticed Pearl watching him and stopped. “I want them to see that they didn’t break me.” He sat up, adopting the posture that, Pearl fondly recognised, meant a sermon or a lecture. “I may be returning against all reason to an impenetrable fortress of a prison, to rescue a terrorist whose claim to sanity is dubious at best. I may be highly unlikely to survive. But if the worst does come to the worst...”

Pearl completed the thought. “Then you’re gonna leave a good looking corpse.”

Max nodded morosely. “Indeed.”

“So what’s the plan for the rest of the evening?”

“I had considered some ‘guided meditation’. _Hello, Mother, you’ll never guess where I’m going..._ ” He laughed mirthlessly. “Of course, speaking as a Vicar, the appropriate thing at this point would be to offer confession.”

“You think it's come to that? I suppose you’re right... Are you scared, Max?”

“Of course I fucking am. Going back… It’s like a bad dream I had once.” His gaze was unblinking. “Your turn, Captain. I’m listening.”

It was a long time since Pearl had called herself a Scientician, but she had to concede there was some use to the practice as she found herself forced to order her thoughts, clearly distinguishing the practical from the mournful and the downright melodramatic. 

“Before I came to Halcyon, I never did anything like any of the things I’ve done since. At times it’s been like a play, or a fever dream. And now it feels very real... part of me keeps telling myself that this is just going to be more of _‘The Adventures Of Captain Hawthorne’_ , but I know it’s not. And my biggest worry is… look, if you and Nyoka and Ellie didn’t want to be here, you wouldn’t be. But Felix and Parvati… they’re so…”

“They were younger than they are now when you took them on,” he said gently. 

“True, but it’s not about their age. They’re just...”

“Although it makes her awkward to speak it, Ms Holcomb has a mind of her own. And if you told Mr Millstone to leave, well... He has always been desperate to attach himself to a cause; it may as well be a righteous one.”

“You think this cause is righteous?”

“I don’t know.” Sometimes she missed his stubborn self-righteous certainty, and at times like this she suspected he missed it too. “But you’ve mostly steered us right so far. I’ll always back your play.”

Pearl swallowed and raised her mug. “To the crew, then.” She sipped at her rapidly cooling tea. 

“To the crew.” Max inclined his head. “But what of the Captain?”

Pearl sighed. “The Captain wishes she had something stronger. But if I get as drunk as I want to, I'll be no good to anybody. What I really want is to get going, but if we leave now we’ll be underprepared. I'm wound so tight it hurts. I want to run, I want to fight, I want to do _something_...”

“I believe duty compels me to assist you, Captain,” Max said gravely. “I could offer you some physical distraction.”

“How very selfless of you.” 

“If you would prefer, we could run laps of the Promenade. But if we were to trip and injure ourselves we would be of no use at all to Dr Welles.”

“You make a strong case, Maximillian,” Pearl said, aware of a sudden huskiness to her voice. She held Max’s hand where it rested on the table, held his eyes with her own. “Without the incense, if that’s ok? I want it to be… I want it to be just us.”

Max’s grip tightened on her hand, and he looked away. 

“Wait. If we are confessing, then… I have a fantasy that I’ve been harbouring for as long as I can remember. Much like the rest of my nature, the more I tried to repress it, the fiercer it became. I would dream about it, then scorn myself for my weakness. It is not the desire of a reasonable man…”

Affection and irritation warred within her. 

“Max, you talk too much…”

“Very well.” He took a breath, composed himself. 

“I want to fight an opponent who is worthy and willing. And when I defeat them, they yield to me and then I take my pleasure.”

“Is this a tossball thing?” Pearl was flustered; and it slipped out before she could help herself. Max scowled at her. “I’m sorry. Honestly, that’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard. How about this, though... If you win, you get to have your way with me. But if I win, I get to have _my_ way with _you_. 

Max looked at her, hope dawning in his eyes. 

“You’re serious? I would give you no quarter.”

“I don’t want any quarters... look, I won’t let you do anything that’s gonna damage me. I’ve got a mad scientist to save, remember?”

Max’s eyebrow was raised, his cheeks flushed. 

“Yes...”

Pearl got to her feet, and as they shook on it she seized his hand and drew him close, letting him feel her breath on his ear.

“Besides... _I’m going to win._ ”

Max walked ahead of her. He removed his shirt, folding it carefully before draping it across the rungs of the rear ladder. Clad only in his slacks, he padded towards her across the floor of the hold. Poised and ready for violence with a smile on his face. He spread his arms wide; an invitation, a blessing and a challenge. 

“As always, I am at your disposal.”


	2. Chapter 2

Violence came easy and comfortable to Max. He was powerful and intelligent and so fucking handsome. The pride he took in himself was evident, she thought fondly.

“Are you trying to distract me, or do you just really like that shirt?” 

Max laughed, lowering his head in false modesty as he displayed himself to her. 

“Is it working?”

Pearl folded her arms, pointedly did not remove any of her own clothing, and assessed him as though seeing him for the first time. She remembered how trapped he’d seemed behind his desk, penned in by the luxury of his surroundings. His weary courtesy, his silver tongue; the sudden and hilarious outburst of temper. That was before she’d formed the habit of planning how to go about fighting everyone she met, so she made up for lost time now. 

Max was heavier than she was, and his reach was a little longer. She was faster though, and possibly stronger too. Before she arrived in Halcyon she’d had an active job and she’d trained hard, while Max had sat on his ass in Edgewater. Although life aboard the Unreliable had melted away a fair bit of the softness around his midriff since, he still huffed and puffed when he had to run.

In combat, though, he was vicious, and the scars on his body showed that he could take a good deal of punishment. He was stubborn, and Pearl didn’t think she’d get him to yield through pain, even if she were willing to hurt him that badly. But he was hot headed - he’d go charging after a particular outlaw or creature that had caught his ire, with no thought to the others that would surround him. _Get him riled up, get behind him, get him pinned_ , she thought. 

“Careful you don’t trip, Max.” Despite himself, he glanced briefly at the floor, and Pearl smirked at him. He grinned back at her. 

“Oh Pearl, I do love it when you jest with me. I especially look forward to wiping that smile off your face. I think I’ll have you get down on your knees and praise me. Nice and deep and slow...”

Pearl felt a sweet twinge between her legs at the thought, but she forced herself to roll her eyes.

“Is that all this is? Now that you don’t believe in the Architect you need me to tell you you’re a good boy instead?”

He scowled at that, as though he’d expected theology to be off the table. “ _I_ don’t need anything. You need me. To kill people for you, quite handily I might add, while you procrastinate over your decisions as though it matters.”

That stung; but they’d agreed there would be no quarter. The prospect of fisticuffs and fucking seemed to have loosened both their tongues. _Not the healthiest form of communication_ , she thought to herself; but there was a lot she wanted to say to Max while she still had the chance; before she climbed him like a tree. 

“There’s middle ground between everything’s planned and nothing matters, you know? Maybe you’ll find it someday. And Laws, if you think I’m making the wrong decision, Max, then why are you even coming with me?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know anymore. If there is no Plan and everything’s just chaos, then why should it matter to me what happens to you? But it does, so Void fucking take me I’m going to Tartarus with you, to save a madman or die trying.”

His eyes were alight with sincerity, his cheeks a little flushed. Pearl was captivated by the way his lips moved, as he lowered his voice almost to a growl.

“But first, I’m going to take you to my bed and make you _scream_.”

He surged forward, closing the distance between them astonishingly fast. His right arm swung round, a powerful cross that would have knocked her off her feet if she hadn’t just managed to evade it. She sidestepped and shoved him past her, combining with his momentum to make him stumble but not quite fall. He spun round to face her, half grinning half snarling as he swept his hair back out of his eyes. 

“Too slow, Maximillian,” she chided, and they circled each other warily. She could see the wiry muscle shifting in his arms, his large hands formed into fists. He was poised, but poised to strike, not to block; and she imagined punching as hard as she could, sinking her fist in right where the soft dark stripe of hair ran down his belly. His nipples were hard, whether from cold or arousal or both she couldn’t say. 

She feinted towards his right side and he swung for her again. She lowered her shoulder to take the blow - _fuck_ , he hit hard - and stepped inside his reach, landing sharp jabs against the base of his ribs. He groaned through gritted teeth as her fists danced across the bone, too fast for him to ward off. Eventually, he gave up, and simply hit her in the face. 

“I have never been a good boy,“ he hissed. 

The distance was too short for him to get any power behind it, but he caught her lip against her teeth and she felt a sharp split. She gasped and stepped back, tasting blood as her tongue probed at the wound. 

Max’s expression was a perfect combination of guilt and lust. He reached out carefully to soothe the hurt. Pearl grinned at him and grabbed his fingers, interlocked them with her own and bent them back. He gave a wordless yell of rage and pain and jerked her towards him. She punched at his ear but he deflected her, smirking triumphantly as he got her in close. Before she could quite regain her balance he charged her, forcing her back against the wall of the hold. There was a desperation to him. His breathing came harder than she would have expected from their short bout - she’d known him both fight and fuck for far longer - and his eyes were large and sad. 

Pearl loved Max for his fierceness, his tenacity. He’d searched for his destiny within the Plan and then within himself; and she couldn’t bear the thought that all his searching had left him forlorn. 

“I don’t want you to come with me if it’s just because you don’t know where else to go,” she gasped out.

“I refuse to accept the idea of the Universe without you in it.” He kissed her as though the very thought made him furious, then flipped her face first against the bulkhead and pinned her wrist behind her, leaning in and twisting just hard enough to hurt. His breath was hot and damp on the side of her neck. “Will you yield?” 

She turned her head as far as she could and bit down on the soft fleshy part where his arm joined his shoulder. Max moaned, the sound vibrating deep in his chest. “A little harder, if you can...”

“Fuck you, Max.”

Pearl held her breath, waited until the purple began to swirl at the edge of her vision. She theorised it was something to do with CO2 building up in her bloodstream; she’d found notes in Phineas’ lab talking about the effect, but they were beyond her. She raised her knees and planted her feet against the wall in front of her, shoved with all her might. 

Four or five seconds’ worth of acceleration were compressed into a single moment as she drove herself and Max backwards. He crashed to the ground with a breathless cry. Quickly, she rolled over in his arms and straddled him. She pinned his wrists above his head with her entire weight, held her other forearm lightly but firmly across his windpipe, steadily increasing the pressure as he strained against her. She could still smell the shower on him; chemical approximations of spearmint and sandalwood that didn’t quite complement his deep underlying scent. Max was wide eyed and winded and genuinely delighted; and Pearl wondered if he’d been playing to lose all along. She could feel his erection pressing into her, hard and exciting.

“Well done,” he finally rasped. He relaxed his body beneath her, tilting his head back in submission. “What are you going to do with me?” 


	3. Chapter 3

Pearl released him, got to her feet and surveyed her prize. 

“Get your pants down,” she said. Max widened his eyes at her.

“Architect preserve me,” he murmured as he arched his hips and complied, but the look of bright eyed anticipation on his face made her heart sing. 

His cock sprang free, fat and stiff and straining up towards his navel. A single bead of precum glistened at the very tip. His thighs were big and satisfyingly solid, the right one tattooed with the Roman numerals I-VI. He hadn’t attempted to write out the Pillars themselves; and she’d seen enough of his handwriting to know that was a wise choice. But the stark lines in dark blue ink were simple and effective. They were also upside down from anyone else’s perspective, which was very Max, she thought. She’d often wondered how he felt about his tattoos since his apparent conversion, but they were a part of him regardless. 

Pearl slipped out of her clothes, and he stared up at her frank and appreciative. 

“Beautiful,” he said as she stood over him. She eased herself down until she was kneeling over his face. He moaned, his breath damp against her inner thighs. His hands were large and warm on her back, flexing a little with excitement as he guided her lower. 

Max’s mouth was hot as she rode his face, his groans of lust sending delicious vibration through her delicate skin. He pushed his tongue into her and then lapped upwards, stroking across her clit with an enthusiasm that left her sobbing for breath. She ground against him, thighs trembling, his teeth shockingly hard behind the velvety sweetness of those gorgeous lips as he ate her cunt. She stroked her breasts and rolled her nipples, and shook with pleasure. 

She felt him cup her buttocks, tug them apart then slip his fingers into her cleft. Pearl gasped and tugged sharply on his hair to get his attention. 

“Hands down,” she told him sternly. She reached behind her and grabbed his wrists, pinning them to the ground once again, then slid herself down his body. His chest was already beginning to show bruises, and she kissed them, before pressing hard on the most prominent one to hear his cry of pleasured protest. His nipples were hard, flat discs, and she spent a lot of time, sucking gently on one while pinching the other into a stiff little peak and then switching. He was moaning under his breath, until she bit down hard on the right one. 

“Ah fuck!” he yelped, and his fingers dug into her shoulders. She sat back and grabbed his wrists again. 

“Keep your hands to yourself.”

He obliged, tucking his hands behind his head and grinning lazily at her down the length of his body. Pearl nodded her satisfaction and wrapped one hand around his shaft. He was thick and juicy and gorgeous, and she wanted to take her time with him. 

She pumped him with a slow, twisting motion, watching his face as he closed his eyes and moaned. With her other hand she teased her fingers along the trail of soft dark hair that lead down from his navel. She tongued gently at his balls, probing the thicker, cooler skin and enjoying the way he shivered and the little “ooh” sound he made. Finally she took him in her mouth, working her jaw around his girth all achy and satisfying, the weight and the heat of him, the sharp musky taste. He was watching her and she made sure to hold his gaze as she pressed the flat of her tongue against the thick vein that ran from base to tip. 

Pearl swallowed around him then hollowed her cheeks and began to slowly, steadily bob her head, humming with pleasure all the while. Her pulse throbbed deliciously in her nipples and her cunt. “Wonderful,” Max sighed, but as she kept up the same dragging pace he gasped and then he groaned, deep and needy. His hands were fisted in his hair and she could see the tension in his body. She went harder and faster, and Max was panting. 

“Pearl - ahn - I’m going to -“

She felt his cock twitch in her mouth, and the little hairs on his thighs prickled against her skin. She pulled off him with a pop, and he made a sound of sheer disappointed outrage. 

“Why? That was so good, your mouth is so good, I was right fucking _there_..!”

Pearl licked her lips and blew a kiss at him as he lay beneath her. 

“I won, Max, remember?.” 

She kissed him, and he groaned with appreciation into her mouth as they embraced.

“I can taste myself on your lips… you on mine… it makes me want to fuck you very hard.” His voice was husky. 

Anticipation and lust fizzed inside her, but Pearl wasn’t ready to give up her power over him just yet. 

“Don't move.”

She braced herself with her hands on his chest, straddled his cock and eased herself onto him, sinking down until she was achingly, gloriously full. His cock twitched inside her, thick and eager, and she had to stop and steady herself, gasping for breath. Max grit his teeth, shuddered and groaned beneath her. 

“Don’t move,” she said again

“You’ve got me,” he replied, exhaustion and delight in his voice. “Fuck, yes, this is it. You’ve beaten me, now you take what you want from me.”

Pearl took him at his word. She held her breath until the lights swirled around her once again, relishing the hot girth of him, the flash behind her eyes as she found just the right angle to ride with. Thighs tensing, she rose up until she was at the very tip of him then sank back down, over and over. His full veiny length pressed wonderful friction against her sweet spot, the pleasure both concentrated and stretched out by the time dilatation until it was almost unbearable. 

Blood rushed in her ears as air rushed into her lungs, and the world came back into focus. She dug her fingernails into Max’s chest and clung on, helplessly moaning his name. Delicious tense electricity rose up from her cunt through her belly, her nipples, her spine. She could feel her throat and ears burning as they flushed. Then Max’s face contorted with pleasure and she felt his seed pulse inside her, and the new fullness tipped her over the edge. He was yelling gorgeous blasphemies as her release flooded through her, clenching and shuddering with pleasure.

“Max,” she panted. “Fuck, you’re so good, you’re so big…”

Max stared up at her, chest heaving and eyes wide. 

“I’ve never… I’ve never come like that. Never felt anything like it…” 

He sounded dazed, and as Pearl’s head gradually stopped swirling it occurred to her what the effect might have been from his perspective. She laughed and leaned forward, resting on his chest. She could hear Max’s harsh breathing, felt his erection softening and slipping out of her. She was sweaty and her skin was uncomfortably sensitive where his chest hair prickled, and she didn’t want to let him go. Max seemed to feel likewise. They arranged themselves in an embrace on the cold, hard floor of the cargo hold. 

Pearl ran her hands over his body, memorising the shape of his muscles and the feel of his skin. Her heart ached as she traced the scars between his shoulderblades. Most of the marks on his body were from fights where he’d won, or at least given a good account of himself; and while his OSI robes had covered them in respectable company, on board the Unreliable he’d displayed them with a casual pride. These were different, with a precise, sadistic symmetry that would only have been possible in someone totally helpless. She always wanted to kiss them and soothe them and pour out her pity, and she always restrained herself, knowing how much he would hate it. 

Her touch seemed to prompt something within him.

“I thought that once I understood the Plan, my mind would be clear and I’d finally be able to _think_ ,” he said after a while, with a post-coital vulnerability that was so unusual it took her breath away. “But if the Plan was real there wouldn’t really be anything to think about, would there?”

Pearl was nonplussed. “I think you’re right,” was the only reply she could think of; but also the only one she meant. 

Wordless, Max took her hand and placed it against the center of his chest, so that she could feel the pounding of his heart behind his sternum. Whether it meant _I love you_ or _I’m afraid_ or simply _I just came incredibly hard_ , she wasn’t sure. In a chaotic universe, many things could be true at once. With his fingertips he traced her cheekbones and her jaw before grasping gently, guiding her to the angle that pleased him best. He kissed her, and the hunger was there in his lips like always, but it was different somehow, like he was storing up feelings to savour. Pearl wasn’t sure how long they were there. She didn’t want it to end; wanted the look on his face and the heat of his bones to be permanent in her memory. It was uncomfortable to be lying on the floor; and she was sure it was worse for Max, cradling her as he was with his long limbs. But neither of them suggested moving. She felt drunk on being kissed by him. 

It had to end. The comm system cracked and cut in with a familiar Byzantine accent, laced with sarcasm too human to be artificial, too artificial to be human. 

“Captain. I have deactivated all sensory input from the hold, for my own protection. However, you did ask me to inform you when the supplies you purchased had all been loaded.”

Their eyes met, and Max dipped his head in acknowledgment. His gaze was tender, but his voice was full of steel.

“Destined or not,” he said, “we will prevail.”


	4. Bonus commission art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr user Kourumi created this commission for me! As well as talented, they are super friendly, communicative and timely. 10/10 would commission to draw hot people beating each other up again.


End file.
